HIS LADY.]
HUDIBRAS.
429
Attacked by despicable foes,And drubb'd with mean and vulgar blows;And, after all, to be debarr'dSo much as standing on his guard; 160When horses, being spurr'd and prick'd,Have leave to kick for being kick'd?Or why should you, whose mother-wits[1]Are furnish'd with all perquisites; That with your breeding teeth begin, 165And nursing babies that lie in; B' allow'd to put all tricks upon Our cully[2] sex, and we use none? We, who have nothing but frail vows Against your stratagems t' oppose; 170Or oaths, more feeble than your own, By which we are no less put down?[3] You wound, like Parthians, while you fly, And kill with a retreating eye;[4]Retire the more, the more we press, 175To draw us into ambushes: As pirates all false colours wear, T' intrap th' unwary mariner; So women, to surprise us, spread The borrow'd flags of white and red; 180Display 'em thicker on their cheeks, Than their old grandmothers, the Picts; And raise more devils with their looks, Than conjurers' less subtle books:Lay trains of amorous intrigues, 185In tow'rs, and curls, and periwigs, With greater art and cunning rear'd,Than Philip Nye's Thanksgiving-beard;[5]
- ↑ Why should you, who were sharp and witty from your infancy, who bred wit with your teeth, &c.
- ↑ Foolish, or easily gulled.
- ↑ That is, we are no less subdued by your oaths than by your stratagems.
- ↑ The Parthians were excellent horsemen and very dexterous in shooting their arrows behind them, by which means their flight was often as destructive to the enemy as their attack.
- ↑ Nye was a member of the Assembly of Divines, and as remarkable for his beard as for his fanaticism. He first entered at Brazen-nose college, Oxford, and afterwards removed to Magdalen-hall, where he took his degrees, and then went to Holland. In 1640 he returned home a furious Presbyterian;
